WUNRN
Direct Link to Publication:
_____________________________________________________________________
Rural Women
Reporting
Community Media for Development (CMFD) Productions/FAHAMU
March
2008
Summary
This
8-page report documents the process and key outputs of the Rural Women
Reporting workshop series initiated by FAHMAU Networks for Social Justice and
Community Media for Development (CMFD) Productions.
According to the report, rural women are rarely heard in the media; even more rarely do they actually have the opportunity to create media. The Rural Women Reporting project was developed to both produce programmes that speak to the issues rural women face, and to empower those who participated through skills and confidence-building to support ways to make their voices heard. The programmes were made available to local radio stations and places where people gather, and were distributed over the internet as podcasts.
According to the report, the workshops focused on participation and experiential learning, and followed eight key steps: an introduction outlining course objectives and radio formats, programme planning, creation of a detailed programme outline, research, conducting interviews, learning about and writing scripts, voicing narration and editing the programmes, and distribution.
The number and length of programmes created in each workshop varied based on what kind of programmes participants decided to create. The outputs for each country are outlined below:
- South Africa: Participants decided to create individual features,
resulting in eight programmes of varying lengths in both English and
isiZulu. Topics ranged widely, and included young women and employment,
teenage pregnancy, child-headed households, women and inheritance rights,
polygamy, grandmother and grandchildren, forced/arranged marriages, and
evictions from the marital home. Each participant (seven women, one man)
gained knowledge not only in making audio programmes, but also in
interviewing and research. In addition, a reporter from a national
newspaper came to speak with the participants. According to researchers,
this is significant as it raised the journalists awareness of rural
women's issues.
- Kenya: Participants decided to create a single hour-long
feature on women and governance. Each participant then chose a thematic
sub-topic and developed a segment for the magazine. Topics included women
in politics, affirmative action, election violence against women, challenges
facing women politicians, changes women in government will make, and vox
pops on women in politics. According to researchers, this topic was
particularly relevant as the country was heading towards the December 2007
elections, and putting women on the political agenda was felt to be
especially important.
- Sierra Leone: Participants created three features around pregnancy
and access to health care, early marriages, and theft in the community.
According to researchers, rural women in Sierra Leone have little
protection from discrimination and other human rights abuses. They have
little access to justice or legal redress, and even where constitutional
protections exist, customary law often overrules it.
The report suggests that the workshops demonstrated that rural women can, in a short time, produce audio content to have their voices heard. It argues that more communities would benefit from such an activity. The report recommends both expanding the project to other countries, and developing a more sustainable programme in the three initial countries, perhaps in partnership with local radio stations, as participants now have basic skills that should be built on.
Contact
Deborah
Walter
Community
Media for Development (CMFD) Productions
Johannesburg
South
Africa
Tel:
+27 (0)11 615 6278
Firoze
Manji
FAHAMU
Oxford
Great
Britain & Northern Ireland (UK)
Tel:
+44 (0)1865-727006
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com.
Thank you.